Burning issues and trends in higher education

Most educational institutes were geared up for elearning to a certain degree before the world ground to a halt. Nevertheless, the rush to go from that to 100 percent online learning in 2020 inevitably exposed shortcomings in terms of quality, consistency, equitable access and other areas.

In short, both students and educators found that while online learning brings convenience, there are some areas in which face to face tuition can’t be beaten. The real takeaway, though, is that 2022’s students have seen what is possible and there is an expectation that digital materials and resources will be an intrinsic part of their courses.

It’s almost comforting to see that despite all the upheaval, some debates that have been raging since long before 2020 continue to dominate the agenda. The circumstances of the past two years have inevitably seen a shift back towards traditional knowledge-based learning. After all, there’s a limit to how hands-on you can get through e-learning.

This year, educators will be under pressure and scrutiny to redress the balance between traditional knowledge-based learning and skills-based tuition. There will always be students looking more towards one or the other, and a one size fits all approach is doomed to fail. It is down to educational establishments to provide the flexibility to meet everybody’s demands.